Alex Pereira reached virtually super-heroic heights together with his monumental run by way of the sunshine heavyweight division that included 5 straight wins, 4 consecutive knockouts in title fights, and 4 victories over former champions. However like so many superstars earlier than him, the Brazilian finally needed to come crashing again all the way down to Earth and that occurred over 5 rounds spent within the octagon with Magomed Ankalaev this previous Saturday night time at UFC 313.
Whereas removed from a nasty efficiency contemplating how intently the combat was contested, Pereira seemingly struggled to drag the set off, and he spent a big a part of his 25 minutes within the octagon getting walked down and managed by Ankalaev, who truly didn’t rating a single takedown. It was in the end a really good technique employed by Ankalaev and it uncovered just a few weaknesses within the virtually invincible aura that Pereira constructed at 205 kilos however dropping doesn’t essentially imply that the now former champion has been discovered.
“I don’t suppose uncovered is the best phrase, however I believe it humanized him,” UFC legend Matt Brown mentioned about Pereira on the most recent episode of The Fighter vs. The Author. “As a result of he was dwelling off all this hype. The UFC is masterful of hyping guys up. I believe all of us, and it’s exhausting for anyone or astute followers of the sport like me otherwise you or fighters that perceive all of the intricacies of this, it’s exhausting for us to disregard the quantity of hype individuals put into him. They do that on a regular basis.
“They did it with Conor [McGregor], they did it with Ronda [Rousey], they do it with Alex. It’s a relentless factor. Jon Jones is the one man that’s sort of lived as much as that, and I say sort of as a result of he misplaced to [Dominick] Reyes. He had some shut fights, however he’s sort of the one man who actually simply lived as much as that hype and never misplaced.”
As a result of Pereira marched by way of all of his title fights since shifting to gentle heavyweight, it’s virtually forgotten that he truly confronted adversity earlier in his UFC profession — most notably when he bought knocked out by Israel Adesanya earlier than shifting to a brand new division.
However Brown is fast to level out that what occurred to Pereira in his combat in opposition to Ankalaev occurs to just about each nice champion within the UFC sooner or later or one other.
“This sport, that is what occurs,” Brown mentioned. “You turn out to be humanized in the event you hold preventing. Uncovered, I wouldn’t essentially say uncovered as a result of Ankalaev didn’t get the takedown. Had he taken him down and overwhelmed the shit out of him on the bottom, OK he bought uncovered. We all know very clearly what it’s now however he defended his takedowns very nicely. Even did a number of injury whereas being pushed in opposition to the cage.
“So I simply suppose uncovered is the incorrect phrase, however I do suppose immediately this hype prepare of Pereira has come to possibly not a halt however it’s slowed down so much. He’s nonetheless a fantastic fighter. He’s nonetheless the whole lot we thought he was however the UFC sort of overplayed their playing cards.”
Whereas it was a disappointing night time for Pereira, he would possibly get the prospect to rectify that in his subsequent combat with UFC CEO Dana White already teasing a direct rematch.
The sunshine heavyweight division doesn’t have a transparent lower No. 1 contender and Pereira was a three-time defending champion earlier than Ankalaev dethroned him.
The loss at UFC 313 undoubtedly stings however Brown believes there’s a optimistic that may come from this, particularly if Pereira’s capable of construct a fair greater rivalry with Ankalaev forward of the rematch.
“That is the age of quick consideration spans,” Brown mentioned. “All people’s going to overlook about it. The subsequent combat will promote very massive. All people’s going to overlook it was a loopy boring combat. I didn’t discover it fairly as boring as everybody else. I used to be within the techniques, and the methods that they have been utilizing. I used to be shocked truly at how little wrestling Ankalaev went for, how a lot he stood with him, I assumed he would push for it so much more durable.
“If the UFC might spin that [rivalry], it might be actually, actually massive for Alex. As a result of now he’s truly the primary man in fight sports activities historical past that I might consider that might have two predominant main rivals to construct the star energy [after already fighting Adesanya].”
If there’s a draw back to this state of affairs it’s that Pereira is about to show 38 years outdated and a second loss to Ankalaev might be devastating to his future endeavors.
Dropping two fights doesn’t essentially doom Pereira’s potential to placed on entertaining fights and ship just a few extra highlight-reel knockouts, however struggling back-to-back losses to Ankalaev undoubtedly damages his model.
In the case of drawing energy within the UFC, that’s probably much more helpful than gold.
“I don’t suppose it’s do or die however by way of his star energy, it could be a do or die for him to be as massive of a star as he’s,” Brown mentioned. “If he goes on the market and loses once more to Ankalaev in a rematch … it’s not even do or die however his star energy goes so exponentially greater if he goes out and works Ankalaev. He goes on the market, and places a beating on him, his star energy goes by way of the f*cking roof once more. He’s again on the top-top.
“If he loses, it’s not [that he’s dead], you’re not going to combat Jon Jones or [Tom] Aspinall in all probability. Perhaps you retire. Who is aware of the place his thoughts is however if you need one other title shot, you’ve started working your method again up, buddy.”
